CHARGERS: Johnson glad to be where he's wanted

Lineman starts over with Chargers after Houston gave up on him

SAN DIEGO ---- The relationship between Travis Johnson and the
Houston Texans ended Aug. 31, and both sides felt cheated.

When the Texans traded Johnson to the Chargers for a fifth-round
draft choice (which could be a sixth depending on Johnson's playing
time this season), the move was an admission of guilt.

Since the 2005 NFL draft, when the Texans selected Johnson with
the 16th pick in the first round, the team has drafted five
defensive linemen. Of that group, one ---- first overall pick Mario
Williams ---- has served with distinction.

Johnson, who was drafted as an athletic playmaker at the
defensive tackle position, managed just 106 tackles and two sacks
in four seasons.

Upon his departure, Texans coach Gary Kubiak expressed something
less than heartbreak on the team's official Web site: "I wish him
the best in San Diego, but we're moving forward."

If Houston coaches, fans and media don't believe that Johnson's
production matched his lofty draft status (or salary), Johnson ----
for his part ---- doesn't think the criticism leveled as he left
town matches his level of play.

"If you want to characterize my time (with the Texans) by sacks,
I guess it wasn't good," Johnson said. "But at the same time, I was
always a steady starter, always a steady playmaker as far as doing
what I was supposed to do.

"I think that's where defense starts ---- taking care of your
job."

Johnson concedes that his numbers haven't been eye-popping. The
Houston staff would likely agree.

But it was a nagging sports hernia, Johnson said, that robbed
him of the explosiveness that made him an All-Atlantic Coast
Conference performer as a senior at Florida State.

"These last two years I played with the hernia and with groin
problems and all that stuff," he said. "It probably didn't get
diagnosed correctly, and that probably would have helped me out a
lot.

"For all football people, if you turn the film on, the film
doesn't lie. If I was that (bad), I wouldn't have had a job."

Yet everything about the Texans' current situation suggests that
this trade was just such a pink slip. Since drafting Johnson,
Houston has never finished better than 22nd in the league in total
yards allowed, and nothing about this preseason suggests that the
team is suddenly flush with better options.

Rather, it seems Johnson's injury struggles made Texans
officials skeptical that he would ever become the player they
thought they drafted in 2005.

"It was always something," Johnson said of his time in Houston.
"There were always questions, but I was never replaced, so what can
you say? It got to the point where I was almost ready to cut my
(dreadlocks) because I needed a fresh start."

Instead, Chargers general manager A.J. Smith spent a draft pick
to give him that new start.

"I knew what type of player he was coming out of college and in
Houston," said Jamal Williams, the Chargers' starting nose tackle
and Johnson's new neighbor on the defensive line. "He's one
explosive player coming off the ball, so we knew he could come out
here and help us out."

In the worst-case scenario for his new team, Johnson provides
much-needed and versatile depth on the line, where the Chargers
have already lost Ryon Bingham for the season and Jacques Cesaire
missed much of camp with a calf injury.

In the best case, he'll capitalize on the physical abilities
that got him drafted ahead of fellow Charger Luis Castillo, and the
transaction will go down as a preseason steal.

"Our group is a tight-knit group," Williams said. "Whatever
happened in Houston has nothing to do with us as the San Diego
Chargers. We welcome him with open arms."

Or in Williams' case, open ears.

"He's a talkative guy," Williams said. "He might not even be in
the room, but you hear him coming."

The trade brings Johnson, a high school All-American from
Sherman Oaks, back to his roots, where he cheered for Bo Jackson's
Los Angeles Raiders teams.

"I just rooted for California teams," Johnson said. "I even
rooted for the Clippers, and not too many people root for the
Clippers."

Nonetheless, he leaves behind his wife and four children (all
under the age of 5), who he says will come out to visit when they
can.

"I'm one of those guys who doesn't like too much change," he
said. "It was kind of difficult at first just to grasp it, that I'm
not going to be at home anymore, not going to be around the friends
that I've had these last four or five years."

Johnson is quick to point out his gratitude for the Texans'
confidence in 2005, but as he gradually heals from hernia surgery,
he is looking to prove that the Chargers got a gem.

"I'm excited to play on Monday night so all the people back in
Texas can see this is what they missed," he said. "I've been a
winner my whole life. There's a passion within me that wants to
say, 'You shouldn't have written me off.' "